What a horrible weekend!

I would give anything to be asleep right now. I know, that sounds nothing like me, right? Well I fully intended to be in bed early tonight, but things (of course) just didn't happen that way. It's been a crazy few days.

For some reason I didn't feel well on Thursday morning, and spent the morning in bed until about noon. It was not pleasant. I had lots of stomach cramps and diarrhea. No fun. I was miserable, but thank goodness Evan stayed and took care of the kids while I rested. The rest of the day I felt better. We just kinda laid low. I thought maybe I ate something at the baby shower the night before that might have disagreed with me. That night we ran out to my mom's so that I could pack up my scrapbook stuff for my Friday night craft night. For supper we took my sister to Mineral and I had some appetizers and then salad bar. I felt fine. The next day (Friday) I had a big salad for lunch with Tuna and that night I decided to have something delicious. We were scrapbooking after all :)

That afternoon, the power went out. Marek and I were in the kitchen making a fresh fruit salad (he had just woke from his nap) and Ardyn was still sleeping. About an hour after making the salad, the storm blew through. Right before it hit, Marek and I ran outside to get a rug and a pee pad off the clothesline, and when we got outside I put him down on the sidewalk because I couldn't take stuff off the line AND hold him with one hand, and I was in a hurry because I could tell the rain would get here very soon. I no sooner got the stuff off the line (there was just two things) and the wind picked up (from NO wind to unbelievable in just a second) and I turned around to see the basketball hoop blowing over... and headed right for Marek, who somehow miraculously stepped out of the way just in time. it was so windy he was squinting at me and then it blew HIM over and I ran towards him and scooped him up and we ran inside as it got even worse and started downpouring!

After the storm blew through, I got ready to head to Princeton. There still wasn't power here when Evan got home, and when I got to Princeton, they had significant storm damage, with trees down everywhere. Half of Princeton was without power. I couldn't get to the church because there was a tree blocking the road, and I called to let the girls know that I had to drive out by Tiskilwa and come up the country roads to get there. They told me they didn't have power there but had food and were scrapping just the same.

After I got there we ordered Pizza Hut. I had the chicken alfredo pasta bake and it was delicious as usual... but it had been a LONG time since I had it. We scrapped till midnight and then I ended up talking to a friend till 1:30 in the parking lot. The kids and Evan had gone to Happy Joe's for supper since we had no power, and ended up staying at his parents because the power was still not on when the kids were ready for bed. I headed out there after a brief stop at home to grab some clothes and toothbrushes.

We went to sleep at 4am and there was still no power. at 6:30am I woke up and could NOT sleep anymore so I went downstairs. I didn't know why I couldn't sleep. In about two hours my stomach started hurting and the diarrhea started. It was not pleasant, but at about 11am I went up and woke up Evan and told him that I couldn't deal with the kids anymore and that I was sick and needed to lie down. At that point it just got progressively worse, with lots of abdominal pain. Evan brought Marek up to me and we napped together, and when Marek woke up I tried to go downstairs with him but when I would stand the pain was unbearable, so I went back up to sleep. I couldn't sleep and by the time 1:30 rolled around I was in agony. I told Evan that I was going to the hospital and we all got in the van and he took me and dropped me at the ER. By the time we got to the hospital, I was hyperventilating. I could not talk to Evan much on the way there, and while thinking about my pain level (putting natural childbirth at a 10) I was thinking this was a 7 for sure. I could NOT figure out what was going on. I was afraid it could be something like appendix or gall bladder, especially since both my mom and sister have had them both removed. The ER Doc was leaning towards UTI (WTF?!) and so they did bloodwork and urine sample. I spent most of the time (2.5 hours?) I was there asleep on the gurney. I was just so exhausted. They gave me a GI Cocktail (which worked on the nausea and numbed my stomach and esophogus, and actually stopped the pain entirely.) and then when both the UTI and the bloodwork were clear, they discharged me with instructions to rest and take Pepcid and Tylenol every 8 hours and see my Dr at the beginning of the week. My dad came to get me and dropped me at home, where I slept from 4pm until almost 8pm when Evan went to my mom's and got the kids back and brought them home to bed. I still hadn't eaten in 24 hours, and was a tiny bit hungry so I had a handful of wheatables crackers. I felt fine, but about two hours later the intense pain started again and I was so miserable and scared. I called Evan and he came home, but about the time he got here I was almost asleep and the pain was less. I had cold washcloths on my head, my neck, AND my stomach. It was terrible. When I finally fell asleep it was probably somewhere near midnight and I slept straight through till I heard Ardyn pitter patter into the bathroom this morning. Then I sent her out with Evan to the living room to watch cartoons and I went and got Marek, nursed him, and slept on and off till almost noon with him. Then I moved to the couch and lay there until about 2pm when we put the kids down for a nap and Evan and I both lay down and slept till almost 4pm. When I woke up I was feeling a TON better and STARVING because I hadn't eaten in two days, and I ate a PB sandwich (no jelly) and had half a banana.

Ardyn and I cleaned out the fridge and freezer because the power had been out for just over 24 hours and we lost everything upstairs. Then I cleaned the inside of the fridge and the kids and I took a shower together. When we were finishing up, my mom and dad came over to bring back my van and helped me get the kids dressed. Then since I was still feeling well I took them out to supper (where I watched them eat because I wasn't thinking that I was ready for a real meal) and then we went to Wal-Mart where we dropped $418 on two carts FULL of groceries and then brought everything home and unloaded it. I put all the cold stuff away and left the rest on the porch for Evan to deal with when he gets home. Then I put the kids to bed and made a chicken pot pie for myself. I took my medicine first and I am sitting here writing this because I wanted to be upright and digest a while before I went to sleep. Boyd came inside and is sleeping on the couch next to me. Poor Old Dog. :(

Just about 10 minutes ago Ardyn came to the door of her room to inform me that she was sorry, but she had taken her nighttime diaper off (she's not night time trained yet, but can go for a whole nap) and that she then peed all over her bed. AND down the side of the mattress and box spring. I was so angry and frustrated! GRR! Now she's sleeping on the spare crib mattress on the floor of her room. Oy. And now I am going to bed! Wish me luck that the chicken pot pie settles well, that I sleep well, and that this week is much better, more productive (you should see this pig stye we live in!) and that my stomach does not continue to do this!